


A Meeting of Minds

by danceswithhamsters01



Series: Reddit Prompts 2: Because the old one is quite full [1]
Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Circle of Magi, Dreams, Fade Spirits, First Meetings, Gen, Pre-Canon, The Fade, Unexpected Visitors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:00:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26401552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danceswithhamsters01/pseuds/danceswithhamsters01
Summary: Based on a prompt from r/dragonagePrompt 6: "I'll admit, I didn't see the family resemblance at first, but now I see your [parent] in you"As an apprentice, Sevarra Amell had visitors in her dreams. This new one is something different.
Series: Reddit Prompts 2: Because the old one is quite full [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918846





	A Meeting of Minds

Crickets were singing in the background as fireflies drifted in the sky, seeming as if they were mobile yellow-green stars in the night air. Pale reflections shimmered in the water: a pair of half-moons. Satina, the smaller and not always visible of the two moons, was showing its face to Thedas. The lake’s waters lapped lazily at the shore, which she sat a small distance away from on an old blanket she’d pilfered from one of the storage closets. She was nearly certain no one would miss such a threadbare thing for at least one evening. Standing ever proud as it had for centuries, the pale stone tower that the Circle called home stood silently at her back seemingly miles away. There’d been nothing but sleeping bodies in the dorms and empty hallways when she’d crept out. Not a single templar in sight.

The sounds of the water lapping at the shore served to further lull her into a sense of serenity. It was almost as if something were whispering for her to just… let go for a while. It was beautiful. Peaceful, even. These were the sort of surroundings that her mind painted for her when she read her novels and stories. A nice night for an evening. _I bet that’s something one of the characters would say,_ she thought with an all-too-brief smile.

She knew that none of it was real.

The apprentice mage slowly rose to her feet when the shifting and snap of a twig rang out in the air. “I know you’re there. You needn’t bother hiding. I know where I am.”

_What will it be this time? That desire demon that likes wearing the shape of a red-headed woman? This setting is most certainly not the work of a rage or sloth demon; too calm and too much work._ She sighed and stretched before bothering to turn around. She’d been getting ‘visits’ in her dreams for a couple of years. She’d only ever told one person about having them, and that person was… gone. Whoever and whatever this guest was, it was going to get the same answer as the previous one, the same answer all of them got. _Never agree to ANYTHING in a dream,_ her memory whispered in the voice of her first instructor.

The mage blinked and tilted her head to the side as she laid her eyes upon her visitor. _Clearly, not the same creature, that or she’s found a new costume,_ she thought. A woman with warm brown skin and long black hair smiled as their eyes met. The visitor’s attire was nothing Sevarra had ever seen in person or read about in books. She wore a pale green short top that left her midriff exposed and a long wrap-like skirt in a matching tone that wound around her waist and ended as a drape that went over one shoulder. Gaudy brass and gold necklaces of varying lengths hung from her neck, their pendants taking all manner of shapes. Engraved bracelets adorned her arms and several pairs of earrings ran the length of her earlobes. It was all very… shiny.

“Do you, now?” the stranger chuckled. “Then perhaps I am in the right place.”

“Either you’re someone entirely new or you’ve found one hell of a costume, spirit,” the mage said after reminding herself that staring was rude, even if the other person… wasn’t actually a person.

The spirit woman gave a shrug and another smile. “And yet, you come to this place looking like that when you know you could look differently if you so chose.” The creature’s oddly kind eyes gave her a brief glance from head to toe.

“I always look like this!” Sevarra sputtered.

“I was referring to the frumpy robes.”

“Oh,” was all the mortal could manage to say as she ran a self-conscious hand down her blue and violet robes. The colors and cleverly hidden signs of repair plainly declared them to be apprentice robes. They were more or less the same style she’d worn from the age of six onwards, barring the addition of a corset when she’d begun developing feminine curves.

“So, I’m guessing you’re a spirit of fashion sense, then?” she couldn’t stop herself before the jape flew out of her mouth. _Maker’s tits, don’t go poking at strange spirits, idiot,_ she scolded herself.

The visitor smirked and took a step closer. “Hopefully not always a stranger. But, no, I am not a spirit of fashion sense. I’ve yet to meet one. Perhaps there is one somewhere out there. The Fade is a very big place, after all.”

Looking as if she sucked on a lemon for a brief moment, Sevarra reminded herself that thoughts weren’t exactly private things when in the company of the Fade’s inhabitants. For all she knew, this spirit could regard her the same way she herself regarded unguarded pastries in the kitchen. She kept her eyes on the spirit as it paced slow circles around her and looking as if it were taking mental notes.

The spirit stopped its pacing and huffed a sigh. “Oh, please. I’m not like that. And you look nothing like a… honeycake, is it? I don’t do this ‘eating’ thing you mortals seem so enamored by.”

“Can you not?” the young mage grumped as she folded her arms.

The spirit tilted her head, the motion making the pendants on its necklaces tinkle musically as they collided against each other. “Do what? Ah… I forgot. You mortals are deaf that way, aren’t you? And yet, you lot think so very _loudly_. Very well, then. The spoken word it shall be.”

“If you’re Desire, you can sod right off. I’ve already told her, or perhaps yourself in a different disguise, no several times. You’ll not get what you want. I’m not anyone’s plaything!”

The spirit put its hands on its hips. “Desire? You think me such a base thing as that? You are sadly mistaken, my little friend.”

After a moment of reflection, she realized that her visitor hadn’t bothered to tempt her with anything, nor had it asked pointed questions about things she could only daydream about. The one that had tried to tempt her while wearing Neria’s face after she’d left found itself shocked at the level of rage she’d shot its way before forcing herself awake. Clutching her elbow in her hand, she took a deep breath. “When you get the same dog barking at the door relentlessly, as it were, you can hardly fault someone for starting to have the same opinion about all dogs. What do you want? Why are you here?”

The spirit pursed its lips and gave her a slightly perturbed expression. “I could very easily ask you the same things. You’re the one visiting my habitation.” It sashayed to where the old blanket lay on the ground and claimed half of it as it sat down.

She shrugged her shoulders. “We all visit here in our dreams. It’s the way of things.”

“And yet, ones who are fully aware of their visiting, such as yourself, are rare.”

“And that is something beyond my control. No one ever consulted me about it, I was simply born this way,” Sevarra shot back.

The spirit broke into a fit of giggling. “The exact same words but from different lips,” it said after gathering its composure. It looked at her thoughtfully. “I did not see any resemblance at first, but now I think I do. Zoraya would’ve been so pleased. A bit of Revenis lives on, it seems.”

“Who? Those names aren’t familiar to me. I don’t know either of those people.”

“No, you wouldn’t, would you?” it said in a somber tone as its lighter mood fled. It rose to its feet and placed a gentle hand on the mage’s shoulder. “You’ve nothing to fear from me, young Night Sky.”

She blinked several times as she watched the figure walk to the shore and then halfway into the water, her mind caught in a whirlwind of questions. “That’s not my name. Wait! Where are you going?”

The spirit turned its head and smiled before vanishing.

Sevarra sat up in her bed, blinking away sleep. The dorms were the same as they ever were. Orange and pink tinted daylight poured in from the high up windows in the walls, denoting the arrival of morning. All around her, the other girls were getting ready to start yet another day in the Circle. Shuffling to the bathroom in a bid to claim one of the tubs while the water was still warm, she made a note to consult the dictionaries in the library. There’d been… something in a dream. Most of it had faded away, but one particular word stuck with her. Night something?

Shaking her head, she stripped off her sleeping shift and hung it over the privacy screen and put one cautious foot into the tub after another. She hummed in appreciation upon finding that the water was warm. Pinching her nose shut, she sank beneath the water’s surface. There was a lot of time left in the day and only so much of it could be used bathing, so she couldn’t afford to luxuriate in the tub, no matter how tempting the prospect was.


End file.
